De La Hoya assures Hopkins fight is on despite trouble during middleweight debut

Posted: Saturday, June 12, 2004

TIM DAHLBERGAP Boxing Writer

LAS VEGAS - Oscar De La Hoya was sore, discouraged and uncharacteristically subdued. An unknown German had nearly beaten him in his middleweight debut, and now De La Hoya was trying to explain what had gone wrong. When he finished with that, De La Hoya had another, tougher task - trying to assure everyone that his Sept. 18 fight with middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins would go on.

"The fight is happening, believe me the fight is happening," De La Hoya said. "I'm really looking forward to it."

Hopkins surely is too, especially after seeing the trouble De La Hoya had Saturday night in barely beating Felix Sturm to fulfill his part of the bargain and set up the September megafight.

If De La Hoya struggled against the unheralded Sturm, what chance will he have against the fearsome Hopkins?

Very little, predicted one interested ringside observer.

"There's no way he beats Bernard Hopkins fighting like he did tonight," Mike Tyson said. "If he does he's going to get his head knocked off."

De La Hoya offered no excuses for his narrow win over Sturm, which was clinched only after De La Hoya fought in a frenzy to pull out the final round and a 115-113 decision on all three ringside scorecards.

There was talk in his camp about a bad back and brittle hands, but that didn't explain the fact De La Hoya looked pudgy at 160 pounds and got hit all night long by Sturm's jab and inside right hands.

De La Hoya's plan was to bring Sturm over from Germany as his patsy, take his lightly regarded WBO title and set up the September fight with Hopkins that could earn him up to $30 million. It nearly all fell apart when Sturm not only put up a fight but bloodied De La Hoya's nose and seemed the stronger and fresher fighter.

"I have to admit I underestimated Felix Sturm," De La Hoya said. "Like every opponent in front of me, they prepare themselves like it's the last fight of their lives."

Why the 31-year-old De La Hoya didn't prepare himself that way, too, is a mystery that only he can answer. He wore a baggy shirt to Friday's weigh-in, and when he entered the ring Saturday night it was easy to see why.

The fighter who appeared so cut at every weight from the time he began his career at 130 pounds seemed blown up and ill fitted for 160 pounds.

De La Hoya went right after Sturm in the first round, trying to take him out. But Sturm ended the round with some good shots of his own and went back to his corner with his right hand held high, confident he was in a fight he could win.

"Everything seemed to go wrong," De La Hoya said. "I had to pull this fight out of a hat, fight like a warrior."

"Everyone knows I won this fight," Sturm said. "I am the true champion. He got the win because he's a big name."

If Sturm, whose 20 wins all came in Europe, proved so difficult, De La Hoya figures to be mismatched against Hopkins, who has made 18 title defenses and hasn't lost since dropping a decision to Roy Jones Jr. in 1993.

Hopkins won a cautious but easy decision over Allen, then watched anxiously from his dressing room as De La Hoya ran into trouble with Sturm. Hopkins will make some $10 million to fight De La Hoya, a purse the likes he has never seen.

"If you had taken my blood pressure then, I'd have been dead," Hopkins said.

The 39-year-old Hopkins went out of his way to praise the way De La Hoya fought hard in the final round to win, perhaps so he can convince people to spend their money in September to watch the two fight.

Hopkins talks as well as he fights, and he was eager to begin the promotion for a fight that promoter Bob Arum predicts could be the richest non-heavyweight fight ever.